Iditarod Race Updates and Coverage--Ultimate Iditarod

We pulled out of Yentna around 11:00 p.m. and headed towards the checkpoint of Skwentna. The trail runs up the Yentna River so it's primarily flat and fast. We passed several teams on the way and, after a smooth ride, got to Skwentna at 1:30 a.m. We decided to stay the night and then head out in the morning. The race is already getting very spread out. The teams are spaced out over a seventy-mile stretch of trail right now as the leaders press on and the rest of the pack tries to find a groove that their team is comfortable in.

Most of the competitive teams raced on up ahead to Finger Lake or Rainy Pass during the night so we had a lot of passing to do when we left the Skwentna checkpoint around 9:30 a.m. The ride up to Finger Lake was smooth and fairly uneventful.

After fueling up our machines we continued on through Finger Lake to the Rainy Pass checkpoint on Puntilla Lake where we spoke briefly with Ultimate Iditarod's Mitch Seavey. He appears to be having a good trip thus far and is very excited about his team. On the trail between Finger Lake and Rainy Pass we passed Ultimate Iditarod musher Jim Gallea camped and asleep on the straw with his dogs. After a quick word we left him and continued on.

The trail from Rainy Pass to Rohn is one of the roughest stretches on the entire race. Twenty miles out of Rainy Pass we reached the Gorge. The Gorge is infamous for it's slippery ice bridges and steep descents. Fortunately we made it through well and after a good but slow run we landed here in Rohn.

One musher that has everyone wondering is Doug Swingley. After winning the last three consecutive Iditarods, four total, he now appears to be running a "relaxed" schedule. Doug has stopped and rested his team so much that he would now seem almost out of the running. Almost. I speculate that his plan is to keep his team well rested and keep his speed up and effectively shorten the number of days his team has to run at a stressful pace. I would imagine he thinks that if he gives his team say twelve extra hours of rest in the early part of the race he will make four of those hours back up with faster running times before the 24hour rest. Then, further up on the trail, when the other teams slow down he will continue to gain time on the runs and possible skip rest with his better charged team and gain the rest of the time back in the last several hundred miles of the race. When we spoke with Doug's fiancée in Finger Lake about this new strategy she informed us that he is still trying to win and that he won't disappoint us!

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© 2002 Ultimate Iditarod, Snowcrest Racing Sled Dogs, Seavey's Iditarod Racing Team
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